They are called Housegirls or househelpers or housemaids and in kinyarwanda they are refered to Bayaya for female and Ababoyi for males.
Depending on a different home and background these househelpers are called different names.
However, there are untold stories about these chaps who manage homes both when their masters are away or at home.
They prepare food, take care of babies and clean houses and all house chores including prunning flower gardens.
Nice Kanangire of IGIHE embarked on a quick survey about housemaids;(not their true names) Uwamariya Christine, Umulisa Epihanie, Ndayishima Florence, Iradukunda Clementine and Mahirwe Amina.
Below are the excerpts of the carefully arranged conversation with five of them.
All of them didn’t manage to roll up with school due to poverty; they stopped in Primary 6 apart from Epiphanie Umulisa who stopped earlier in Primary 4.
Asked about what pushed them into doing such a work, they all gave the same answer where the major reason was poverty, a miserable life and a search for shelter because most of them found themselves homeless.
Do you experience any forms of abuse by your masters?
Christine Uwamariya: I personally don’t but my fellows do. Some of the masters consider us badly in such a way that we don’t have a convenient place to stay, some of my fellows still sleep on mats as I am telling you this.
There are masters who think they have all their rights upon their househelps, and even reach the point where they slap them and even sometimes starve them because they failed to do something, without mentioning the delay in payment.
Why do most house girls end up in prostitution?
Mahirwe Amina: Most of the girls take themselves into prostitution because they feel unloved at their workplaces and even at their own homes so they become liberal and put themselves in all kinds of situations because they don’t feel appreciated, they no longer care about anything.
However, in most cases they go into prostitution because they find the work in somebody’s house very hard to manage, money doesn’t come on time or is insufficient, having said that, the manner of the girl also contributes to all that.
What is your advise to women that Leave their children with housemaids?
Ndayishima Florence: My biggest advice would be to take them into day care if they can afford it because they never know how they are being treated once she is away from the house.
The house help might be naturally mean or mistreated by the master then in return she might want to get revenge to the master through the children by harming them.
If the mistress can’t afford day care I would advise her to take a house help who is also a woman and a mother because she knows the value of a child thus how to take care of it and educate it since she is the one the child will be staying with most of the time.
How much are you Paid?
Umulisa Epiphanie: They differ from one master to another but in general they range from Frw20,000 to Frw 50,000. Taking into account the responsibilities that we have in life that money is not enough but there is nothing we can do to it.
All we do is try our best to use it well by purchasing only the necessities and then we keep the rest in bank accounts.
Talk about Associations that support Housemaids
Iradukunda Clementine: It really helps us because in case of problems, they provide us shelter and look for another place where we can do the job. We pay Frw 5,000 annually.
Despite that, due to some house helps who were really undermined by their masters financially wise, the government ordered that no house help should be paid less than Frw 10,000.
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